Black Onyx President leads by example

Leader is the perfect word to describe Plattsburgh State sophomore and President of Black Onyx, Latay Moultrie. Moultrie is an English major and Africana Studies minor.
The Black Student Union plays a significant role on campus.

“Black Onyx is an organization that was created in order to bring cultural awareness to both the black population on campus, as well as the rest of the student body,” Moultrie said.
Moultrie says Black Onyx’s goal is to build relationships with as many people on campus as possible.

“I hope to draw some bridges between other cultural clubs and organizations on campus,” Moultrie said. “I also hope to build connections with all people, regardless of who they are.”
As president of Black Onyx, Moultrie played a significant role in the protests on campus following the circulation of a racist Snapchat post. Moultrie led the march and protest downtown last Feb. 16 organized and mediated that Friday evening’s forum and spoke with President John Ettling and Vice President of Student Affairs Bryan Hartman about issues on racism on campus. Moultrie says there are still many changes she’d like to see on campus.

“The biggest thing to me is [to hang] the Black Lives Matter flag,” Moultrie said. “That is the first thing I’d like to be done.”
Moultrie would like to see a wider array of diversity in the teaching faculty.

“It should not be only black and brown people as custodial workers or food service workers,” Moultrie said. “I would like to see them in the classrooms as well.”

Beyond her role as president of Black Onyx, Moultrie has long-term goals in mind. Moultrie enjoys reading and learning from authors like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Moultrie aspires to become a teacher or a professor. Moultrie also wants to eventually open her own non-profit organization to improve the lives of homeless teenage mothers.
Moultrie is inspired by an array of different sources, her biggest inspiration comes from her admiration of black women.

Moultrie said that someone she personally admires is Dr. Worokya Duncan, the director of inclusion & community engagement at the Cathedral School in New York City. Moultrie has known Duncan since middle school and maintains a relationship with her and continues to admire her work.

Moultrie’s roommate and friend, Mai’eja Williams had only good things to say about her friend.

“She [Moultrie] possesses great leadership skills, she’s a great person overall,” Williams said, “And she’s a great friend.”
Williams said her conversations with Moultrie makes their friendship so special.

“We have personal talks about where we want to go in life and how we want to do better for ourselves,” Williams said. “We have a lot of conversations that are very important to me.”
Another friend of Moultrie, Aniya Carvalho, spoke about Moultrie’s leadership skills.

“I think she gets her leadership skills from things she’s been through in her life,” Carvalho said. “It’s from personal experience. She’s very driven.”
Moultrie encourages conversations about the important issues on campus and is open to discussing them with other students.

Moultrie and Black Onyx continue to work toward equality by discussing issues on our campus. Moultrie said she continues to learn and be inspired.
“I feel like inspiration never has one source,” Moultrie said. “It’s so easy for me to be inspired by so many different people.”